Once you have finished configuring your display settings, you will be presented with the login screen seen in Figure 3.12d:

Figure 3.12d: PC-BSD Login Screen

Any user accounts that you created during installation will be listed. If you click the Universal Access button in the task bar (round icon with a stick figure), you can set the accessibiity options shown in Figure 3.12e:

Figure 3.12e: Universal Access Preferences

If you installed PC-BSD on a laptop, the taskbar will also show the current battery charge level when you hover your mouse over the power icon. The taskbar includes a clock followed by a Shutdown Options icon. If you click that icon, you can choose to restart or shutdown the system.

If you highlight a user account, some more options will be added to the left side of the taskbar as shown in Figure 3.12f:

Figure 3.12f: Login Menu with User Selected

These options allow you to select your language, keyboard layout, and desktop to use for the login session. Once you have made your selections, input the password associated with the selected user and press enter.

NOTE: PC-BSD will not let you login as the root user account for security reasons. If you just get the login prompt after typing the password, the password was incorrect. Double-check that caplocks is not on and try typing the password again.

If you wish to add or delete any desktops, use the System Packages tab of System Manager.

Auto-login

For security reasons, PC-BSD defaults to a login screen. If you are the only user on the PC-BSD computer, always use the same window manager, and don't consider it a security risk for the system to automatically boot into that window manager, you can enable auto-login as follows.

Become the superuser and edit the file /usr/local/etc/gdm/custom.conf. Add the following 2 lines to the [daemon] section, substituting the name of your user account for username:

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=username

The next time you boot into PC-BSD, it will automatically login as the user you specified.

If you wish to test your changes before a reboot, close all of your applications as the following command will end your X session and should automatically log you back into the same desktop. You need to be the superuser in order to run this command:

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/gdm restart

Welcome & Getting Started

The first time you log in, the PC-BSD Getting Started screen will load as seen in Figure 3.12g.

Figure 3.12g: PC-BSD Getting Started Screen

If you click the Next button, you can read an overview of the utilities that are used to configure your network connection, install applications, configure your system, make a backup, and keep the system updated, as well as how to get involved with the PC-BSD community. Check the box “Don't show this greeting on next startup” if you do not want to see this screen the next time you log in. To re-open the screen after checking that box, type pc-welcome.